Golden hands of a golden player

Hamdija's father was a talented soccer and volleyball player who played in the city club, but also in the national team, while his uncle Zlatan was also a sports giant - multiple state champion in shot put, discus throw and weightlifting.

Zlatko started training handball in the sixth grade of elementary school, and the fact that he also trained volleyball helped him the most. Regardless of his short stature, he had a tall reflection that he achieved by coaching both sports. His versatility allowed him to make his legendary jump shots.

Zlatko started his professional career as a handball player in the club RK Borac from Banja Luka. He already distinguished himself there as one of the best players in Yugoslavia in the 80s. He played for the club for ten seasons and after that he moved to RK Medveščak in 1987. He played in the Zagreb club for three years, during which he won the Yugoslav Cup in 1989 and 1990.

In 2000, he joined Fotex Veszprem, where he played for two seasons, and in 2002, he played for Zamet Crotek. He ended his career as a player in that club and started working as a coach.

The biggest successes of Zlatan "Zlatko" Saračević and the Croatian handball player, whose irreplaceable "right winger" he was, are difficult to single out, but if they had to be summarized in a few lines, it would look like this.

With the Yugoslav national team, Zlatko won the gold medal at the WC in Switzerland in '86. and the bronze medal at the OI in Seoul in '88.

With the Croatian national team, he was the Olympic winner in Atlanta '96, runner-up at the World Cup in Iceland '95 and bronze medalist at the European Championship in Portugal '94, and he also won gold at the Mediterranean Games in '93. in Languedoc-Roussillon.

It is interesting that the great handball player had an unusual habit before important matches. Namely, he used to swing on the swing in the nearby park.

And his exceptional talent is also shown by the results of the clubs where Zlatko would play. The clubs in which he played won the Yugoslav (1981), French (1993), Croatian (1998–2000) and Hungarian (2001–02) championships, as well as the Yugoslav (1979, 1989–90), French (1994), Croatian (1998– 2000) and the Hungarian Cup (2001).

After retiring from his playing career, Zlatko was the coach of Zamet, Hungarian Nyíregyházi, Zenica Čelik and Dubrovnik and Zagreb, with whom he won the national championship and cup in 2018. He was also an assistant selector of the Croatian national team.

Since 2018, he has been coaching handball players of the Koprivnica club Podravka. After the women's handball players defeated Lokomotiva in the derby of the Croatian championship in Koprivnica and thus took a big step towards the new championship title, Zlatka suddenly fell ill.

The celebrated handball player and talented coach died on the way to the hospital.

- He lived for handball. He was altruistic, always ready to help. Calm, restrained, rational, he had very good observations. Perhaps this case also prompts us to think about whether we have the right attitude towards coaches. Coaches are underestimated, and they are all very vocal when they need to be accused of failure - said Lino Červar in 24 hours.

In addition to being an exceptional coach, Zlatko entertained the team with his jokes from Banja Luka during breaks. And when the players were listless, he would manage to make them smile.

Zlatko Saračević was irreplaceable on our handball scene. He played excellently with both hands, and such exceptional talent will hardly ever be repeated.